Nepali Story – Myanglung (The Cat God of East Nepal)

There is a city named Myanglung in Terhathum district in East Nepal. The folk story is about how the place got its name. The story was a part Nepali text book, Mahendra Mala, during the Panchayat System in Nepal. The story is no longer in the course book.

Read the story in Nepali:

An abridged translation of the story in English:

There is a big village named Myanglung in Terhuthum district in Nepal. Limbu people live in the village. The Limbu people in the area worship a Goddess called Singha Bahini Bhagawati. The statue of the Goddess is attached to a Pipal tree. There is also a stone statue of a cat beside the tree. There is a folk tale about how the statue came there. When asked, the old people in the area tell the following story:

It is a story of a very long long time ago. At that time, people used to go to far-away cities once a year to buy salt and other daily needs. Three porters on their way to far-away cities stopped at Thala Danda for the night under a tree.

To cook food they collected  three big rocks to make fire.

While they were cooking food on the fire place, all of a sudden, one of the stones that made the fire place started shaking. They were surprised by the incident. One of the three was surprised and he hammered the stone by his Khukuri (a typical Nepali knife).

To their surprise, blood started oozing out of the wound on the stone. All three were so scared that they started crying and running away.

The locals heard the noise and gathered and rushed to the place. Three guys had already ran away.

They saw a stone cat walking around crying “Meow Meow”. The people started searching for the three travellers. (details omitted)

The news travelled far and away. People started gathering in the area. Once, an old man saw a dream in which he was asked to take the cat to a place in the village. That is the place where the Singh Bahani statue is located today.